


The Starbird flighes only when its feathers are grown

by Crackedkybercrystal



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Casino hiest, Dubious Consent, F/M, Oracles, Slow Burn, Space Pirates, Virgin Sacrifice, endless musing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 18:45:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14408250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crackedkybercrystal/pseuds/Crackedkybercrystal
Summary: Trying to work out in my own head how a group small enough to fit into the Millennium Falcon after the siege at Crait can bring down The First Order. I don't know if they're going to suceed or not, but this is what I came up with, oh and eventual smut, just because.





	1. Chapter 1

"The resistance needs to disappear in plain sight. No more military bases, there's not enough of us. We'll live among the cities and the villages, and await our time to rise up. We are the spark that will light the gallaxy". Leia continues, "so we will need to spread out and keep the hope alive. I'm sending some of you to the core planets, but we can't afford to ignore the mid-rim. The worlds that have been squeezed the hardest by the rise of The First Order are powder kegs waiting to blow, and when they do we need to be there on the ground. The Resistance isn't another outsider squabbling for a piece of the pie, it's the local people demanding a voice and a chance to live free. That doesn't change if we're throwing rocks at First Order transports or blowing up the next Starkiller Base, and force help us, but those sons of nerf herders are probably already working on it".

It was an inspiring speach, and Rey wasn't the only one present who felt the weight of history on her shoulders as she listened to the general, nor the only person wondering if that made Leia herself a nerf herder by her own reckoning. 

And so, 6 standard months after Crait, Rey is living with Finn and Rose in the poor outskirts of a medium sized city, on an unremarkable planet in the mid-rim. The local economy has been stagnating since before the fall of the New republic. There are a lot of young people gathering in bars and cafes during the evening and the local precinct preachers who talk sedition usually gather a crowd. Poe had flown in late last night to check in on them, he was leaving tomorrow morning, so they were going out tonight to forget their worries for a few hours. The friends walk togther through a maze of lanes, past graffitti showing the resistance Starbird, it's the kind of thing that can get you killed around here. 

Inside the bar Poe walks up to order drinks, and Rey, Finn and Rose take a seat at a table. A singer comes onto the small corner stage, and the band strikes up. The noisy bar is suddenly quiet, the singer is obviously a local favourite. She's crooning about a faithless kiss and Rey can't help but feel her own emotional turmoil roiling to the surface. She hasn't seen Ben since she closed the door on him at Crait, but she thinks about him every day. She wonders what she could have said or done differently that might have made a difference. Would she even be here now if only she had been strong enough to bring him home. Rey thinks back to her naivety when she had placed herself inside the escape pod and boarded the Supremecy, but it was her own desires that had written that empty promise. What if she had reached out her hand and taken the one he held out to her in the throne room? Rey looks up as tears roll down her cheeks, and notices Poe, Finn and Rose all staring at her. Finn smiles and says, "It's a good song", Rey is so grateful to have these friends in her life, and takes the drink that Poe is holding out to her. "Yeah", she manages to reply.

The next day, after saying good bye to Poe, the work continues as always. The three of them meet with different groups, people who are usually only interested in tearing their neighbours apart, but it appears that the only thing they hate more than the next precinct is The First Order. Everybody knows someone that was forced into The First Order, either by poverty or more direct means. The custom here is for the first week of the lunar year (as reckoned by the larger of the 3 moons) to be a sacred time of pilgrimage to holysites, but The First Order has banned all travel, fearing an up rising incited by the preachers. Rey is shocked at the stupidity of this command. If the First Order was trying to upset the local people on this planet any more, she couldn't think of a better way to manage it. It's as if the First Order officers, based in the city, are doing her work for her. This is a population ready to pick up a blaster and lay their bodies on the line. The new recruits are all encouraged to record a hollo video for their friends and famiy, explaining why they have joined The Resistance. Mostly they just read from a script. Rey loses count of the young faces telling the gallaxy that they have chosen their own destiny and freedom over The First Order. She preys to the force that it is a destiny that will allow all of them the time to grow old and live in peace, or at the very least, a return to the petty bickering with their neighbours which is considered normal here.

To gain more material resources, The Resistance will have to start conducting raids. They can't rely on funding from a republic that was blown out of existence, so Poe has laid out a plan to "liberate" what they need from First Order control. Rey is looking forward to taking a break from the grind of recruiting to be a space pirate. It is Rose who comes up with their first target. A mining station in the outer rim. The precious ore is stockpiled before being transported by freighters. The First Order has surpassed the old Empire in manufacturing and production. The Supremecy was as much a floating factory as it was a command vessel for Snoke. Almost a million Empirial cubits of ore are loaded onto the mega freighter, the work is done by the mine's droids. It takes most of a standard cycle, which is impressively efficient, and then the ship's burners ignite to thrust the mountain of rock into orbit. It is here that the captain is confronted with a blaster to her head and Poe quickly resets the coordinates for the leap to hyperspace. Rey's squadron of Y-wings has already taken out the handful of older tie fighters escorting the freighter. She knows that stealing (sorry liberating) ore isn't the glamerous image most people have of fighting in The Resistance, but then it isn't everyday she gets to barrel roll in a star fighter just for the sheer joy of it, so she woops and cheers with her squadron until she is planet side again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lessons in Calligraphy

He uses a small flat brush to write out the meditation in perfectly controlled script. Through the force he is one with his task, he is the black ink soaking through the porous parchment, he is the paper, absorbing the inky darkness:

PEACE IS A LIE, THERE IS ONLY PASSION.

He can recognise the distinctive sound of the brush scraping across the surface to form each symbol:

THROUGH PASSION I GAIN STRENGTH.

He can smell the chemical transformation as the ink dries, soaked into the fibre:

THROUGH STRENGTH I GAIN POWER.

He uses his power now to restrain his strength, every muscle attuned to the liquid flow of the force:

THROUGH POWER I GAIN VICTORY.

His breath and his heartbeat are a relentless metronome keeping constant time, unrushed by anything beyond this moment:

THROUGH VICTORY MY CHAINS ARE BROKEN. THE FORCE SHALL FREE ME.

There was a time when this written meditation soothed and centered him. When it connected him to the force and he could re-dedicate himself to his purpose. Kylo was never a Sith, but the simplicity of the code has always appealed to him. The Jedi accuse the Sith of looking inwards, thinking only about themselves, but if this was true, (and Kylo cannot deny it), then it is true of all life. The service of the Jedi was hypocrisy and the lie that led to their downfall. But the code, usually so soothing, fails to calm him now. His thoughts have wondered back to the girl, and a vision of writing the script across her naked flesh comes unbidden to his mind's eye. Kylo takes a deep breath and tries to empty himself of the lust. He is an unworthy vessel for the force, but the vision is burnt into every synapse of his brain and he gives up on the meditation with a sigh, and stands to return to the bridge.

A report has reached him about a shipment of ore that was pirated from the outer rim. The perpetrators are unknown, but there are few suspects brave enough to steal so brazenly from The First Order, and beyond that, it is as if he can feel her glee, rolling about in a starfighter when he looks at the data pad. He knows not only that this is The Resistance, but that she was there. Kylo takes a breath and leans against the bond as he does everyday, hoping to catch her off balance if only momentarily. It is so frustrating to have her presence parked in the center of his being, but sealed away in an impenitrable box. 

If Kylo were to consider the nature of his relationship with Snoke, it would not be as an apprentice to his master, although that was the language it was couched in. It would not be as a son to his father, although many outsiders may have thought this was apt. No, Kylo always thought Snoke was like a needy lover. Not that the old bastard had ever raped him physically, at least he didn't have that to lock away with the other terrors that haunted him most nights. But Snoke had resided in the forefront of every thought, he was steeped into the flavour of every breath, he coated every interaction with the taint of his corruption. 

The girl, Rey, he allows himself to think her name, had been a beacon through the fog. For the first time in forever, he could see a way forward, and she was there, besides him. But then she had left, and now he is truely as splintered to the soul as Snoke had claimed. 

Kylo reflects that it is difficult to bring order to the known gallaxy when he has so much trouble controlling his own mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Oracle Awaits

There have been a few other raids, but Rey wasn't needed. She has what can only be considered an impressive bounty on her head, so unless they really need her skills on the front line, she's safer working the backrooms, staying planet-side and listening to the recruit's hollo recordings. 

Poe breaks atmosphere two standard months after the fist raid. He's got a detailed plan to discuss with the three of them. It's a casino heist on Canto Bight. It's also a lot more complex than any of the other raids that have been carried out, but it promises a major pay out, the type of funds that can buy a small fleet. Poe's informant claims that the establishment is planning to ship 5 tonne of Spice bullion. Rey doesn't recognise the currency, but from the way Rose and Finn have sucked in their breath, she's guessing it's an impressive figure. 

They will need to access the vault, as secure as it is, it's also their only chance. The plan involves an elaborate distraction so that BB8 can tap the central computer from a secured terminal and sweet talk her into bypassing the data loop that will be sliced in, creating a security crack they can exploit. There are a lot of moving parts and things that can easily go wrong. Rey wonders if the risk can be justified, but she trusts Poe's motivation. She understands that he wouldn't be risking so much if the need wasn't so urgent.

Rey slips into the casino to follow the plan laid out by Poe. She's wearing a gown which doesn't seem to cover anything she would prefer to have covered, but in this place, she fits right in. Rey immediately feels that something is wrong, the force is damp and tamped down around her, as if she has a wet towel wrapped around her head. A server offers her a drink from a tray filled with tall fluted glasses and she takes one absently, trying to avoid attracting attention. It's then that the unmistakable figure of Kylo Ren steps up to her and asks her if she wants to dance. Rey doesn't even know what Ben means by this as there is clearly nobody dancing nearby, but it's only a passing query as she passes out into sweet oblivion. 

The temple of the oracle is older than either the Jedi or the Sith orders. The force witches that serve as handmaidens have all had either their eyes, tongues or eardrums removed, a process achieved with maximum scaring as far as Kylo can judge. He doesn't know why the force would require this from them, but as in so much of his life, his is not to wonder why, his is only to present his petition and await the response.

They're in a chamber off from the chaos that is the central naïve. Rey's been injected with the antidote to the drug that has kept her unconscious since Canto Bight, 72 standard hours of hyperspace travel ago. Kylo senses her return to reality before there are any visible signs. "Rey, sweetheart, wake up, we're here". He knows that he sounds like an anxious lover, and in a very real way he knows that to be a true description. Just not one that Rey herself would recognize. 

Rey opens her eyes slowly and groggily looks around from the couch Kylo has laid her down on. "Here, drink this, it will make you feel better", he hands her a glass of water, but is unsurprised when she takes the glass and smashes it against his face in a sudden rush of violence. "shshshsh", he continues to sooth her as if she was a baby crying through a new tooth, and not an infuriated Jedi woken from her own abduction. "We're at the oracle's temple now", he continues in the same soothing voice, as if she might find it comforting or even just informative. Rey does not, but she recognises the voice for what it is, the psychopathic part of the Supreme Leader that never grew beyond the age he was when Snoke blocked out all the light. It's the voice of a child locked in a dark room, torturing a small animal for comfort, and Rey knows who the small animal is in this metaphor. 

"Ben, what have you done" she asks.

Just then, a giant of a figure, cloaked in grey, enters the room and stands silently. Kylo glances at the figure, and then returns his gaze to Rey. "We're being summoned before the oracle now, at last we'll know". he holds onto her firmly by the upper arm and leads her through the doorway. The air is thick with incense burning from the censers swung by the acolytes. There is a hole in the centre of the floor that reminds Rey very much of the cave in Ahch-To. There is mist rising from the hole, and on the far side, Rey can see a stone table. There is script winding around both the floor near the hole, and also around the table, but it's laid out in symbols Rey has never seen before, she can't even begin to guess what any of this means.

"We have to make our offering now Rey", Kylo continues, as if this is in any way helpful to her understanding. He's led her around the edge of the central hole, to stand before the table, and then, because this whole situation wasn't already straight out of her worst nightmare, the Supreme Leader starts to undress. 

Rey stares at him in complete horror. "What are you doing" she hisses. 

"It's alright sweetheart, I won't hurt you" he says, "but if you're not a virgin, I'm afraid they'll kill you". Kylo gestures to the grey robed figures surrounding the room. This is the ultimate example of Kylo's insanity. Rey understands that he honestly thinks that statement makes sense, that he can lead her to a situation where she will be killed if she's not a virgin, but it's ok, he's promised not to hurt her. 

By now, Kylo is completely undressed. Rey doesn't know where to look, and she's beginning to suspect that the smoke is effecting her, because as freaked out as she is, and she is VERY freaked out, if anything, she's calmer than she should be. Now somebody has handed Kylo a large cup and he holds it out towards her. "You might want to drink this " he says, "it will relax you".

"In the same way I was relaxed getting here" Rey shrieks. 

"No, no, it will make this....... " he pauses significantly, "more enjoyable". 

Rey is beginning to get a picture of where this is leading. "And are you planning to drink any?" she asks. 

Kylo has the audacity to smile at her when he gestures to his cock, which is erect and weeping. "I don't think I could possibly enjoy this any more. All those years under Snoke, before you", he continues. "Sometimes I doubted my own destiny, I wondered if I should just give in and lay with a whore like an animal, but I never did Rey, I knew you were out there somewhere, I know the force would lead me to you". There is the glazed look of the zealot in his eyes now, and Rey thinks she had better drink the dam drought. She chugs it down without a second thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Somehow it's suggested to Rey that she'd be much more comfortable up on the stone table and although she doesn't really recall how she ended up here, now she's lying on top of it. The handmaidens seem to have gotten in on the act too. They've combed out Rey's hair, they're removing her gown and rubbing an ointment into her skin that smells of flowers and spices. Rey looks down to watch Ben massaging the ointment into her exposed breasts, and wonders idly when he joined her up on the table. She feels wonderfully warm and her skin is tingling everywhere that she's being touched, but she can't take her eyes off Ben. Rey watches the sweat pooling in the dip of his collar bone. She wants to lick him all over, but she's enjoying his hands on her body too much to do anything except moan his name and roll her hips in desperate invitation. She wants him all over her more than she had wanted a full portion on Jakku. She runs her hands up his muscular arms as he's crouched over her, spreading her legs wider, she wants to run her hands through his hair, claw at his back as he fills her. 

But then he looks away from her, his attention diverted, his hands have tensed and stilled (well, that's clearly not right). And then Rey notices some noise and commotion, but she'd have to turn her gaze away from Ben if she was to really see what's going on around her and she has no intention of dragging her eyes off his body. Only now someone (it's Rose, when did she get here?) has thrown a blanket over her and Finn is bundling her up and carrying her away from Ben, who is no longer up on the table. Now they have her attention! What are they doing! Every nerve in her body is screaming out. The cloth that she's wrapped in feels coarse and scratchy, as if it's rubbing her skin raw. Rey can smell burning now, but where's Ben gone? She's struggling and screaming his name. Finn's face is up close to hers now, and Rey can see his lips move. It takes an act of will for her to focus enough to to start hearing his words "Rey! Rey!" he's shouting. When he sees that she's finally heard him, he keeps on shouting. "You've been drugged, we need you to calm down, we're going to get you out of here". 

If it had been anybody else, Rey knows beyond a doubt, she would have force choked them and gone back to Ben. But this is Finn, her first friend. If he's telling her she needs to go, then she will trust him over her own senses. Believe that he can see more than the narrow tunnel that her vision has squeezed down to. Rey's head has started to throb with pain and her whole body is burning like it's been left out to shrivel in the mid-day sun. She senses through the bond that Ben isn't in the same room now, but he's as furious as when they had split the light-saber in half. The whole temple has started to topple in unpredictable ways and Rey's not sure if it's an earthquake or a bombing raid. The Resistance have managed to corral Kylo into a side chamber, buck naked and seething with rage. Rey feels a shock wave of raw power through the force, and she knows that Kylo has repulsed the troops who were holding down his position and that now he is running through the temple chasing them down. Finn is gripping onto Rey's arm, half dragging her along next to Rose, who is firing her blaster back down the hall they've run through. They stumble onto the ramp of the transport ship and take off before Rey can draw a breath.

Rey can't pass out. After all the time she spent unconscious arriving here, it seems her brain is determined to ride this experience out no matter how much she wants to black out. She starts to dry wretch, her body cramping in a wave of spasms. If there was anything inside, she'd have thrown it up on the metallic floor next to the bench she's lying on, so she closes her eyes and ignores everyone around her. It's a three day trip in hyperspace back to their last planetary base, but Leia has other plans. It's obvious that Rey has become too big a target to disappear among the rank and file. If she isn't safe taking a quiet background role, then Leia intends to move her centre stage, to shine the biggest spotlight she can find on her. It's yet another huge risk, but this is a war and that's how it goes. 

By the time they arrive in Coruscant, Rey has recovered enough to think back on recent events without breaking everything in her immediate vicinity. Her rage has cooled into a fist of hatred that she squeezes around the tether that connects her to HIM. But despite the intensity of her feelings (or maybe because of them) Rey knows that the bond has strengthened. If she wasn't consciously pushing down on it now, she's not sure what would happen.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HUXING IT UP

General Armitage Hux wonders again what might have been if he had arrived at the throne room just a few minutes earlier on the day the Supremacy was destroyed. Would he have seen the Jedi leaving the scene of her regicide, or would he have interrupted something other than the official version of events? Was there a chance he could have finally been rid of Ren? It doesn't do to dwell on the "What ifs" too long when the galaxy awaits. 

Hux understands that The First Order is a voracious beast, an unstable star that must consume and grow or implode under the weight of its own gravity. Without the resources of new conquests to prop up the enormous expenditure, the beast will falter. This has been his life's work. Hux sneers at the religious dogma of the force, peace is not a lie, it's just an expense that can't be indulged in the current environment, not when the war machine that he has built calls out to be fed. 

Phasma's loss was unfortunate. The Captain had overseen the training and programming of the stormtroopers with a talent and dedication even Hux's own father would have approved of. But the demands of running The First Order are never ending and so the children are still rounded up. They are the dross base that will be squeezed and molded into the tightly regimented death squads of The First Order. The troops are the living testimony on an individual scale of what Hux is striving to achieve across the whole of the galaxy. Dirty, chaotic, meaningless lives given purpose and focus, sharpened instruments working in harmony.

The General has a scheduled hollo-vid meeting with Ren. It's an unpleasant necessity, but he's all too aware of Ren's instability, he knows he only has to bide his time before the current Supreme Leader will self-destruct. Where has he even been for the past ten cycles? Nobody knows, it makes no appreciable difference. Hux knows that his own position is very different. Ren was always Snoke's favourite toy, but it was Hux who got the real work done. Starkiller Base had been Hux's project, the destruction of the Hosnian Prime system is his indelible legacy. The chain of command leads directly to Hux. Ren was always outside the structure, pursuing whatever fool's errand Snoke set him on. And now that pampered pooch has claimed the throne. When Ren had force choked Hux in the throne room, the General had no alternative other than to accept the facade of Ren's authority. Hux's thoughts loop back to what might have been if only he'd arrived in the room before Ren had woken up. At least force choking doesn't require actual physical contact with his hand, the thought of contamination disgusts Hux even more than the chaos of a disordered existence. The role of The First Order is to sterilize the filth of the galaxy, just as Hosnian Prime was now purified and perfectly ordered.

Ren's figure appears on the table in Hux's ready room. Unlike his predecessor, Ren doesn't feel the need to indulge in having his hollo image blown up to fill all available space. "Supreme Leader" Hux begins, his tone dripping with passive aggression. 

"General", Ren replies, with an equal degree of thinly disguised hostility. "Your report"

"The Endor system is in open revolt. We have dispatched troops to the surface but the terrain makes subduing the populace costly. We are fire bombing the surface, it will have minimal effect on the mining operations, and seems to have gained results".

Ren thinks about the ewoks that his army is currently chasing and fire bombing, and wonders, not for the first time, what exactly the 'gained results' will prove to be. 

"We need to replace Captain Phasma" Hux continues. "Her role in training the troops was pivital. I have sent you a short-list of candidates. I recommend decentralizing her position as it will be difficult to replace". Hux has seriously wondered if he shouldn't just find a candidate who is aroused by asphyxiation, given the propensity of the position to force choking.

The meeting wound up and Hux returned to the bridge. Lieutenant Mitaka awaits his orders. Hux breathes deeply from the recycled air and councils himself to patience. 

*********************************

After he had charged through the temple only to once again witness her ship leaving him behind, after he had regained his saber and "purified" those foolish enough to cross his path, after he had put on some clothes, Kylo Ren closed himself in his shuttle's quarters and wept.

They had been so close to consummating the ritual. He had dared to dream that a child could have been conceived on the alter, a true Skywalker heir. But those fools who had never looked up from the mud to behold the stars, much less understand the force, had ruined everything. The answers he was seeking about the future had disappeared like smoke out of that damned hole. 

The palms of his hands still felt sanctified where her nipples had traced a path. He can't allow his thoughts to wonder or he'll start killing people again, or worse, he'll damage his shuttle craft, and he needs to get back to the Finalizer as soon as possible. It's only Hux's cowardice that prevents him from instigating a coup in Kylo's absence. 

Kylo uses the time in hyperspace to meditate about what it is he wants and how the force will lead him to it. Rey, Rey is what he wants. He needs to posses her mind, body and soul, everything else is just a distraction. He knows that he is destined to have a child with her, he saw it when their hands touched in Ahch-to, but he doesn't know if he'll live to ever see the child and he's not sure what would be the better outcome. Kylo know's he'll be a terrible father, he images a child looking at his own mask, in the same way he had meditated over his own grandfather's. This is the type of messed up family legacy Kylo doesn't want to perpetuate. But at the moment he can't even find the would-be mother of this yet-to-be conceived child, so it goes into another box in his mind, already full of locked boxes, and focuses on more immediate concerns. 

After the necessary briefings with the officers on The Finalizer and Hux's report, Kylo returns to his quarters. It is an austere compartment, the dwelling of a soldier-monk. His only personal belonging is his weapon. Kylo falls asleep and finds himself in a foreign dreamscape. As his dreams usually revisit Snoke's teaching methods, Kylo never enjoys sleeping and never wakes refreshed. But this is different, it's a force vision. He's standing before a sand dune, looking up at the ruins of an Imperial destroyer, the conning tower angled to point at the rising moon. He can smell food being prepared, Kylo recognizes the chemical tang of dehydrated rations with a curl of disgust. Then he sees her, eating the meal, looking up at the night sky, she's so beautiful he can barely breathe. Rey turns towards him and smiles, but then the connection is broken and Kylo is alone in his bed already half hard just from the glimpse of her. He rises for another cycle and walks into his fresher.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ponzi scheme

"There's an old confidence trick used by hustlers that Han once told me about" Leia begins, "and if anybody knew about con tricks, it was Han". A chuckle of appreciation rises from the room. "It's a system where new recruits sell more of their snake oil or their Hutt credits, or whatever else it is back on the planet you each hail from, passing the coins back up the line. The first on board gets rich, it looks like it can't fail, but at the end of the day, when nobody else can be found to replace the buyers at the bottom rung, the whole pyramid collapses. We've looked at the first Order's structure, and as far as we can see, it's all a house of cards set to tumble. The only way an army can rise as fast as The First Order did, is on very insecure foundations. They have no natural loyalties no traditional alliances. They've used aggression to annex and control systems and whole sectors, but it relies on a constant increase to burn its war engine and keep the money coming in. Even Palpatine was more of a politician than Snoke, and as for the new Supreme Leader", Leia pauses. It's her own son a part of her treacherous heart whispers, but she draws breath and continues as planned, "on a good day, he's missing in action". She knows this isn't entirely truthful. Kylo Ren is one of the most powerful force users to ever live. He's more dangerous than any of them can imagine. He's unbalanced and has plunged the galaxy into what could be a never ending cycle of war and destruction. But Leia is a politician, she knows this audience needs hope. "He has a weakness" she continues, "and that weakness is Rey". 

Everybody in the room turns to stare at Rey at this point. The details of the events at the oracle's temple have been glossed over for mass consumption amongst the troops. The official version is that Rey was abducted in the line of duty, and then rescued in a daring raid by The Resistance, there's no mention of her being more than ready to fuck the Supreme Leader until she was bundled out of the room kicking and screaming. No mention that she's still dreaming of his hands on her breasts, that she's memorized his lips, that she knows how he smells and just the memory of these things is enough to get her wet. Rey tells herself she was drugged, but she's not entirely convinced that this explains her reactions. When she remembers how Ben had looked at her, she swallows hard, and there's nothing except caf in her system now. The thing that really bothers her is that Ben hadn't asked her. She knows he's their number one enemy, but she thought she was an exception to the rule. She knows that being deflowered on an alter, before a temple full of acolytes was not what she had in mind for a first date, (or was this their second date after the Supremacy?) How did they leap from late night conversations and hand holding on Ahch-To, to whatever the hell that was in the temple. 

Rey decides right then that she needs to talk to the Supreme Leader before his next crazy attempt at courtship. She's been freezing out the force bond with her rage after the shock wore off, but now it's time to open the door. Well, at least after Leia finishes, the room is looking at her again, she must be involved in whatever is being discussed. "With his attention focused on finding Rey", Leia is saying, "our forces have a better chance out on the front lines where the decisions we make in this room today will be the difference between life and death". The room is eating up whatever it is Leia is selling, and not for the first time, Rey can appreciate the similarities between the veteran Resistance General and her only child. They're both accustomed to getting their own way, they both have a tendency to back you into a corner (or was it an alter) so that you're agreeing to their plan before you've thought things through. The meeting breaks up and Rey slips out before she can be paraded around the crowd. 

Rey returns to the small room she was assigned on Coruscant. They're staying below the surface of the planet. When the transport had first breached the atmosphere, Rey had been transfixed by the sheer size of the planet city, the glut of life forms, all eking out their individual lives. There were more people in a single building here than on the entire planet of Jakku, and that was before she realised that each of the buildings continued beneath the surface even further than they rose above it. But now she hasn't seen sunlight since she was spirited below ground, like a wraith returning to the underground she thinks glumly. Well, this is one spirit that's grown tired of the galaxy dictating events to her. "I'm in charge of my destiny" Rey decides, with a boldness she doesn't really feel, but which she's willing to fake at least for now. She sits on the edge of her cot, closes her eyes and opens the force bond. She knew it had grown more insistent, but the speed and ease that it opens to her is shocking. There's no resistance at all, she just falls into Ben's mind as if she was there all along, and only had to open her eyes to realize it. 

"Rey", his tone betrays his surprise. 

"Ben" Now that Rey has his attention, she's not entirely sure what to say. "What were you thinking at the temple"? she blurts out. "How could you"? 

"But Rey, I always knew you were a virgin" Ben splutters.

"You can't possibly think that makes what you did ok. What about asking me, what about giving me a choice before you had me up against the alter"

"You seem to have been enjoying yourself Rey" he replies.

"I was drugged!" she screams. 

"The drink removed your inhibitions Rey, but what you wanted to do was all you".

Rey is speechless. This is not going the way she thought it would. The fog of lust that had coursed through her veins, that was all her? 

"Don't be afraid" Ben whispers, "I feel it too". 

Rey draws a deep breath and tries again. Talking with a Skywalker, she has come to appreciate, requires patience and determination. She would not be swept aside by Luke, or swept-up with Leia, she sure as hell has no intentions of letting Kylo Ren sweep her off her feet. "Look" she begins, "I don't think you meant to hurt me".

"You know I would never Rey". His eyes are as wide as saucers now, but he truly has no idea what is upsetting her.

"It's not OK to just assume I wanted that. Maybe I do, well, without all the onlookers would be a good start, but consent is an ongoing discussion that can be withdrawn at any time, and it sure as hell doesn't start with an abduction, no matter what you think the force is telling you at the time. 

For the first time, Ben looks genuinely abashed. "I'm sorry Rey. I guess I didn't think you'd appreciate the finer points of a petition before the force oracle, but I was so desperate to get answers. I know you lie awake wondering what this is all for. I only know that we have to re-establish the balance, but I don't know how we get there. 

"We have to work together Ben" Rey replies. 

They spend what seems like the rest of the night talking. It reminds Rey of the days spent on Ahch-To, when it was Ben not Luke who understood what she was going through. At some point she dropped off to sleep and when she woke up, she felt renewed. It was time to bring The First Order down and Ben Solo home.


End file.
